Riley & Hannah's Partnership Tour

Hey there! We spent this past week on a partnership tour in the midwest to visit the business and industries that sponsor the FFA. Here's a brief idea of what we did with each company and what we learned!

MONDAY


Land O'Lakes Purina - Gray Summit, Missouri
Our first visit was to Land O'Lakes Purina where we toured the farm for their agricultural feed products and spoke with employees about the new developments they are working on. Leading the industry in animal nutrition, their company is focused on making quality, effective products for livestock and pet animals. We spoke with FFA members from chapters that joined us at the farm, as well as employees about agricultural education and the FFA. We were also fortunate to have Emily Bardot, Missouri FFA State Vice President for Area 14, join us during our Monday visits. It was a great way to start the week.


Monsanto - St. Louis, Missouri
Monsanto is known to FFA members for many things: The laser show at the convention, the National Leadership Conference for State Officers, and even FFA Today! But I was grateful to learn that Monsanto is responsible for Round Up, and Round Up Ready cotton, soybeans, etc. The Monsanto campus is huge! We first spent time in one of (yeah one of!) the cafeterias on the campus. We were able to meet with many of the employees and hear what they do with the company. Many of the Monsanto employees are individual donors; it was great to have the opportunity to personally thank them for their contribution. After we ate lunch, we got to meet with many team members at Monsanto. It was great to hear their stories and belief in FFA, and I enjoyed getting to relay some success stories of FFA members to them.


Bunge - St. Louis, Missouri
Bunge is an agricultural company that specializes in sourcing grains and oilseeds grown by farmers into feed and consumer ingredients. Bunge has been trading commodities since the early 1900's and are dedicated to being community leaders. We met with Mr. Hodson, Ms. Kolweier, Ms. Yackey and Mr. Hill to learn about their worldwide company and to update them on current FFA events.

TUESDAY

Rabo AgriFinance, Inc. - St. Louis, Missouri
Rabo AgriFinance is a company that gives loans for people who are looking to either begin new agricultural operations, or expand current ones. Many people will use these loans to buy farms, equipment, livestock, and other large investments. I was most impressed with the personal attention they give to each of their customers. They said that their office is the kitchen table of the customer. The personal touch of Rabo AgriFinance is amazing!


Crop Production Services (CPS) - Galesburg, Illinios
CPS is known around to country for providing a guiding hand to farmers as they decide what seed to put in the ground and work to harvest and sell their crop. Much of the work of CPS is done in the field (literally!)and they are a great support system for production agriculture. When asked what CPS looks for in their future generations of employees, they said they want individuals who are self-motivated, creative, responsible and exhibit honesty and integrity.


Caterpillar Foundation - Peoria, Illinios
You often see CAT machinery working up and down the roads on construction projects, or plowing over heavy brush in a pasture. But I did not know that CAT has a foundation that funds many educational and community service projects. It was very cool to listen to some of the programs the foundation supports, and how they are making a difference in the lives of students.

WEDNESDAY

Farm Progress Companies - St. Charles, Illinios
We met with Jeff Lapin, President of Farm Progress Companies to learn from him about the variety of agricultural publications they manage. Farm Prgress produces 22 agricultural magazines, including the "Prairie Farmer" and "American Farmer", holds the Farm Progress Show and has over 1 million subscribers.


CNH Capital - Racine, Wisconsin
We met with some employees at CNH Capital, which is a financing arm of Case IH. Agriculturalist often needs to get a loan in order to start an operation, or buy new equipment. This is where a company like CNH Capital comes in. It was very interesting to learn about this process, and this company’s impact on agriculture today.


Case IH - Racine, Wisconsin
We were welcomed with open arms at the headquarters of Case IH where we met with the President of Case IH, Randy Baker and his staff. They shared with us the massive amount of new innovations Case IH is working on and informed us that their new line of Magnums would be coming out the following morning on their production line. Case IH holds a philosophy that is based off of four principles: People, Partnership, Product and Productivity. They are also working on new fuel sources for their tractors and combines by using ethanol made from corn cobs. We took time to express our sincere appreciation for all they do for the FFA as well. It was great to meet with such dedicated supporters of FFA.

THURSDAY

Case IH Plant Tour - Racine, Wisconsin
We were also given the opportunity to tour the Case IH plant. WOW! This was my first experience seeing an assembly line up close. It was incredible. There were massive pieces of machinery flying over our heads, and people putting them together. It was amazing to see how such a large piece of equipment starts out. It was truly an incredible experience. They mentioned that sometimes FFA members who are traveling to National FFA Convention will often stop and tour the plant. If this is you this year, I definitely recommend it!


GEA Westfailia Surge - Naperville, Illinios
GEA Westfailia Surge is a company dedicated to helping dairy farmers be more productive, efficient and profitable. They work to improve herd management, milk production equipment, dairy hygiene and manure handling. We were pleased to hear that the vice president of the company, Norm Schuring, was a former FFA member and is a firm supporter of our programs. We were even lucky enough to get a tour of their museum, since the company was founded in the dairy industry in 1906.

FRIDAY

Meister Media Worldwide - Cleveland, Ohio
Meister Media is a company that prints magazines and other publications about agriculture. They have many magazines, and I was also impressed to learn about how they are now pairing an e-newsletter with the magazine for extra information. We sat down and met with Elliott Knowles and other members of their team. Mr. Knowles is a former FFA member, and FFA staff member. It was great to catch up with him and hear his stories of his involvement with FFA. Meister is truly an amazing company and I am excited to see what the future holds between them and FFA.


Lincoln Electric - Cleveland, Ohio
Last but certainly not least, was our visit to Lincoln Electric, the welding experts and a 62 year FFA sponsor. We were fortunate to speak with many of their employees about the value of FFA and what agricultural education is doing for students, and then we were given a chance to test out their new virtual reality welding machine. It is truly amazing what they have done to improve the way we are taught to weld using some really cool technology. When you put on the welding helmet, all 360 degrees of your surroundings can be seen by turning around. We had the chance to work in Iraq, surrounded by patrol vehicles. It is so COOL! And we even got to see our stats for how accurate our weld was. Be sure to check out the Lincoln Electric booth at the national convention career show if you want to give it a shot! We followed up our test runs with a tour of the manufacturing facility which is a half-mile long and a quarter-mile wide; HUGE! Everyone at Lincoln was extremely welcoming and committed to supporting FFA.

We owe a big THANK YOU to all to companies we met with during a great week.

God Bless,

Riley and Hannah